Jessica chats to the multi-talented English underground icon
Meet Robyn Hitchcock. A prolific musician and wayward singer-songwriter, who has been tagged with words like, ‘iconoclast’, ‘English icon’, and ‘visionary cult artist’ – yet has managed to elude household, mainstream recognition after nearly 30 years in the music business.
Robyn’s latest album, 'Propeller Time', is his third release with The Venus 3: rock veterans Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin and Peter Buck of REM.
'Propeller Time' is Robyn at his best. He's fearless in his surrealist, creative whimsy – with images of blue-jean wearing butterflies floating by – and creates folk-rock which keeps you moving like a mellowed, English Tom Petty. This album sees some mighty collaborations, including the likes of John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Nick Lowe, and Johnny Marr of the Smiths.
We talk to Robyn while on tour, sipping a giant coffee in a café in Manchester.
Spoonfed: You're collaborating with some big names on this album, how did you find it?
Robyn Hitchcock: They all kind of got there by logical means. John Paul Jones and Nick Lowe are neighbours and they come around when we have parties. Johnny Marr appeared on his orbit and gave us a backing track, and played guitar. The Venus 3, Peter and I have played together for years
Mainstream success has eluded you to a certain extent – is that something that bothers you or is it something you’ve embraced?
I could always sell a few more records... But I’ve never wanted to be the man in the spotlight at one end of the stadium. Sure, fame gets you a table at a restaurant but it also means everyone stares at you. I think respect is most important, but I think I have the respect of the people I want most: fellow musicians.
This album has been brewing for a while, did it change much in the process of making it?
Well it was very spontaneous in the genital stage. We recorded it in about 6 days. Inevitably a bit lay around that needed tweaking, so after 2 or 3 years it seemed there was no more tweaking to be done and we put it out. I think these days a shorter record is better, if you can say everything in about 30-40 minutes more people are likely to listen to it.
So do you think it’s best to respond to the shorter attention span of the next generation?
Well I suppose the amount of information that people are being bombarded with is increasing. Everything is like baby food, mashed up into little pieces.
The day of the album is dissolving. I’m now starting this thing called 'Phantom 45s', which you can download from my site. They're free for a couple of weeks, then there will be a fee. The second one comes out this week, and the rest will be quarterly. They’ll be collaborations with people and I’ll put them out on vinyl as collections. I’d like to concentrate on one or two songs at a time making them as good as I can.
What are you working on next?
Musicians love to play together and there’s not many places where people can see them do that. I want to start getting troupes of people together and have them play in front of people. Like a variety show, I’ve done a couple of them, one in celebration of Insect Rights, one with a maritime evening. I just collect people. I would like to do this as a touring entity, with me as the ring-master.
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